In 2025, Albania’s media environment continued to evolve within a dual trajectory: while institutional frameworks related to media governance and journalist protection expanded in line with commitments under the EU accession process, structural vulnerabilities affecting media independence, pluralism, and the safety of journalists remained entrenched.

The report “Tracking Albania’s Progress on Media Freedom and Journalistic Safety in Line with EU Standards – Annual Report 2025” assesses developments across media regulation, journalist protection mechanisms, defamation reform, electoral coverage, and institutional accountability. The analysis draws on institutional responses, monitoring data, and survey evidence collected from journalists working in Albania.

The report is published by SCiDEV and BIRN Albania, as part of the project “Strengthening Media Freedom, Professionalism, and Journalists’ Safety in Albania”, implemented by BIRN Albania in partnership with SCiDEV and Qendra Faktoje, with financial support from the European Union. The SafeJournalists Network (SJN) has been informed about the report and its findings, which contribute to broader regional monitoring efforts on media freedom and journalist safety.

The 2025 report builds on the monitoring framework established in the Annual Report 2024, which provided a baseline assessment of structural challenges affecting media freedom in the context of Albania’s EU accession process. By applying the same analytical lens and methodological approach including a survey with journalists the new report identifies areas of progress, stagnation, and regression during the reporting period 1 January – 31 December 2025.

According to the findings, Albania demonstrated procedural alignment with EU standards in several areas relevant to media freedom and journalist safety. Institutional frameworks have been adopted or strengthened, including journalist safety guidelines, registers on media ownership transparency, structured dialogue platforms between institutions and media actors, and preparatory work toward legislative alignment with EU standards, including discussions on anti-SLAPP safeguards and defamation reform.

However, the report also finds that operational effectiveness and measurable impact remain uneven. A recurring pattern emerges in which formal mechanisms exist, but awareness, enforcement, transparency of outcomes, and institutional trust remain limited.

Structural vulnerabilities continue to shape the media environment. Political actors remain the primary source of threats and pressure reported by journalists, while media ownership concentration persists without enforceable safeguards for structural pluralism. At the same time, labour precarity and economic dependency within the media sector increase susceptibility to influence. Gender-specific threats and digital harassment also remain embedded features of the professional landscape faced by journalists.

The report concludes that sustained efforts are required to translate policy commitments into effective protection of media freedom and journalists’ safety in practice. As Albania advances in the EU accession process—particularly under the Fundamentals cluster—media freedom reforms will increasingly be assessed not only on legislative alignment but also on implementation, institutional consolidation, transparency of outcomes, and the consistent protection of freedom of expression.